William Hazlitt, “On the Pleasure of Hating”

Discuss these questions with your small group, taking a few notes in your notebook as you arrive at some conclusions:

1.    Take the long paragraph beginning at the top of page 190 and ending at the top of page 192 and break it into several shorter paragraphs. Where would it make sense to break this very long paragraph up? What effect does breaking it up have?

2.    Does Hazlitt actually see Hating as a “pleasure,” or is it something else? What else might this essay be called? (“On the ______ of hating?” “A ______ for/of hating”? Or…?) Does this seem like a defense or an apology, or is it something else entirely (and if so, what would you call it?)

3.    Does this defense of hating seem in any way true to you? (Does it seem to show us something important about its age and/or culture, or about human nature itself?) Or is more a product of its author’s personality? Why? Find one or two pieces of evidence for one perspective, or the other, or both.